Would We Recognize Jesus If We Saw Him In A Mall?

December 22, 1985|By Douglas Pike of the Sentinel Staff

Christmas tests a lapsed Christian like me. Measuring myself against what Jesus said and did, I resolve to do better at doing good. Knowing that my faith never will fit perfectly, I hope that God gives some kind of partial credit for doing some but not all of what my parents' hand-me-down religion demands.

But Christianity is not a smorgasbord that invites folks to chew on whatever ideas they choose. Like rival religions, it seeks 100 percenters. If, for example, you believe Jesus was the son of God, you may qualify. But if you think that Moslems might be right in calling him a great prophet, you're out. It is this all-or-nothingness -- despite the important principles common to Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- that leaves me without any brand-name faith at Christmastime.

It's hard for me to believe what so many card-carrying Christians say: that one's after-life lifestyle will be either heavenly or hellish, and that their faith will get them space in the right place. If it's an all-or- nothing situation, their own confidence seems too strong.

How many of these righteous folks, for example, love their enemies? Lots of them seem closer to the Koran or the Old Testament toward those who trespass against them -- more inclined to retaliate tooth for tooth than to forgive. Me too. I'm about as likely to love my enemies -- not a crowd, by the way -- as I am to outshine Mary Lou Retton in a somersault-and-smile contest.

Another aspect of giving as Jesus preached it clashes with Christmas American-style: his bent against worldly possessions. He had a simple, high standard: Give until it's gone. In a perverse way, I suppose, Christmas fits this as people use plastic cards to approach their credit limits in a gift-buying binge. But from Bangor to Honolulu, Americans are giving mainly according to a commercialized ritual, not to soothe the harsh needs of others. The man from Galilee was an extremist. According to Mark 10:21, he said: ''Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven . . . .'' He also is reported as saying: ''It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.''

That is the Christian criterion that so few churchgoers seem to meet. Maybe lots of people do love their enemies -- that's hard for me to measure. But it's clear that relatively few people take Jesus seriously when it comes to possessions. The only people I met all year who do were at shelters run by Mother Teresa and her followers in Calcutta. Unlike most other folks, they believe that Jesus did not exaggerate.

Like most people, I've got an ungodly lot of possessions. That's reason enough not to call myself a Christian. But thinking about Jesus at Christmas can shake up anyone's selfishness regardless of religious faith. The way he lived is worth contemplating no matter if you're an atheist believing in no religion or a Bahai believing in pretty much all of them.

A remarkable radical named Jesus can get lost in the mad dash among shopping malls that is done in his name. My plea is for people, in their own personal ways, to take him seriously. His life was extraordinary even aside from what dueling faiths disagree about: his relationship to the Almighty.

Nowadays Jesus would be called a street person. Rather than hailing him or crucifying him, we might simply fail to recognize him as we rushed to catch a Christmas sale.